Athens - US firm Chrysler Aviation made a bid of 210 million euros (263 million dollars) for ailing Greek state airline Olympic on Wednesday, in a surprise response to the government's last-ditch effort to rescue the debt-ridden carrier.

Greece's conservative government is currently in negotiations with Marfin Investment Group and Swissport over the sale of Olympic Airlines and reports said the deal is expected to be finalized this week after years of failed privatization attempts.

Marfin Investment Group, Greece's largest buyout firm, came forward in February after an international tender expired in January, having producing no satisfactory offers.

But the government on Wednesday said two more bids to acquire the ailing airline were submitted by Chrysler, offering 210 million euros, and by Greek private carrier Aegean Airlines.

Aegean said it offered 90 million euros to purchase Olympic's flying operation and 20 million euros to buy the assets of Olympic's aircraft maintenance base. It also intends to acquire Pantheon, a company set up by the government as a debt-free successor to Olympic Airlines, offering another 60 million euros.

Founded in 1957 by the late shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, Olympic steadily declined after being operated for decades by the state, with reported losses of 450 million euros a year.

The government has spent years seeking private investors to take over the airline, but the process has been complicated by the European Commission's demand that the company repay unlawfully- distributed state aid.

The last attempt to privatize the airline was September 2008, when the government launched a tender to split the loss-making airline into three units - flying, ground handling and aircraft maintenance - to facilitate a sale.

Marfin submitted a 45.7-million-euro bid for Olympic's flight operations and 16.7 million for its technical base, according to the government.

Swissport, a subsidiary of Spain's Ferrovial, has bid for the ground-handling unit. (dpa)